No guts, we need to cut!

[Snodog]

I'm not an economist but I play one on the internet.

Even though taxes are lowest since 1950 they are still too high.

We have a demand contstrained economy. The proper response should be loose monetary policy, direct government spending, tax cuts to middle class (who are more likely to spend). Tight money, supply side tax cuts do nothing to address lack of demand and in the case of tight money actually make things much worse. Why were/are these even being suggested in some quarters?

Fixing the unemployment situation should be first priority. Its difficult for the economy to grow with 1 out of 6 able bodied people sitting at home.

Balancing the budget now is Herbert Hoover economics and would be disastrous. Fortunately neither political party is serious(Tea Party excluded) about it and only giving lip service.

Austerity now will only choke off recovery and increase deficit.

Deficits are not inherently bad and we are not leaving a debt burden to our children and grandchildren. Each generation consumes what it is able to produce. We are not sending cars back into 1948 to pay off World War 2.

Most people think of government as a business or an individual, when it is more like a scoreboard. When a team kicks a field goal to go ahead 10-7 does the stadium now have 3 less points to give out? Does the scoreboard ever run out of points? "Scoreboard doesn't lie."- Charlie Sheen

If those last 2 paragraphs sound crazy check out Center of the Universe. Warren Mosler explains everything logically and in a manner that does not require any prior knowledge or understanding of the monetary system, economics, or accounting. The 7 Deadly Innocent Frauds of Economic Policy is a must read. Welcome to the dark side.

[snafu]

The founding fathers could not have imagined this Global Economy; an uprising in Libya and the cost of gas in the USA increased 15% even though Libya exports to Europe...not the USA. [In UK they pay about $9.20 gal.] Fact is people are living longer than expected when most of the 'entitlement' programs were devised. I don't think they expected more than 1/3 of the population to collect SS. The rest of the world has always counted on Americans for new, innovative thinking and products but that comes from a solid educational system. Good teachers are transferring their skills and expertise into other professions since they are not supported by either administrators or parents.

Having two wars simultaneously is very expensive. Owing such a huge debt to China isn't a good plan either. Meanwhile the infrastructure is crumbling...did anyone see the mess on Hwy ! in CA? Hiring [voting] movie stars to run the state doesn't seem like a good idea. Am I the only one to remember Reaganomics?

Has anyone noticed how the Japanese people have rallied to help others in their devastated N. Island? If there was such a huge catastrophic event in your state, would Emergency Services be prepared or would it repeat Katrina failures?

[littleroc02us]

Cutting alone won't do it. Taxes need to be raised; loopholes need to be closed (that's another statement that will guarantee a candidate is not elected).

Revenue needs to increase; extending the tax cuts for the top 2% in December was a terrible mistake.

That doesn't make sense, because if I continue to reduce my spending but take in the same amount of revenue then I have reduced and saved. It's just like making 5k a month and expenses are reduced from $5500 to $4500 I am now bringing in more then I am spending. Simple math.

[littleroc02us]

Show me in the constitution where the gov't is required to provide services such as SS, medicare, etc for the people?

Last I checked it was Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness (which is the opportunity to do so, not a guarantee of).

You got that right!!!

[JimInOK]

In fairness, if we're going to talk about the opinions of the 'founding fathers,' we should not simply quote the views of a couple of founders who were on one side of the equation and leave it at that. Alexander Hamilton, to note just one example, had very different ideas on just how limited (or, more precisely in his mind, how UNlimited) the federal government is under the Constitution than did Jefferson and Madison (though Madison flirted with Hamilton's views for a portion of his public life).

I'm not arguing one side or the other, but we should not equate the views of Madison and Jefferson as being the sum total of those of the 'founding fathers.' Dissension on interpreting the Constitution, particularly in the area of limits to federal authority, existed among the founding fathers from the beginning and was every bit as sharp among them then as it is among Americans today.